talk about chuck hagel. he gave a really poor performance at his confirmation hearing last week. both sides can pretty much agree with that. that's coming from folks like leon panetta. leon panetta actually defending him yesterday. let's take a listen to him. >> it's pretty obvious that the political knives were out for chuck hagel. what disappointed me is that they talked a lot about past quotes but what about what a secretary of defense is confronting today? what about the war in afghanistan? what about the war on terrorism? what about the budget sequester? >> ruth, what do you think, does panetta have a point there? >> i think he totally has a point. i think that the thing that was striking about the hague will confirmation hearing was the really poor performance on both sides. yes, the nominee did a terrible job answering entirely predictable questions and handling those, but also, the senators did a predictable but also very poor job of probing seriously his views, not just what he said in the past, but his views on the various things that will face the secretary of defense